Smelly Butter?

Lazydaisy67 · #1 04/05/12, 07:11 AM

Ok, I am skimming my cream by hand since I only have 1 doe right now and a gallon of milk a day to work with. Seems fine to just use a spoon to skim the cream off the top of the jar. Anyway, it takes about a week or so to skim enough to make butter. I put the cream in a jar, add a pinch of salt and shake away. I go through all the steps. Anyway, I am proud of my little tub of butter, slather it on toast (YUMMY) and put it in the fridge. Next morning I get it out, open the tub and EWWW....it smells like buck! I know this can't be a goat milk thing cause I've gotten whole cow's milk butter from my sister-in-law and it smelled like buck too! What the heck? Is that just how "real" butter smells? Is there anything I can add to it to keep it from smelling like that? My kids get a whiff of it and run screaming from the room.

Alice In TX/MO · #2 04/05/12, 08:41 AM

The older Czech folks here like it that way. It's basically "cultured."

Freeze the cream each day after you skim to prevent that stink. Make butter by thawing all of it when you've accumulated enough.

mrs.H · #3 04/05/12, 08:45 AM

Maybe it's the container your putting it in. Is it glass, plastic or stainless? Maybe if you only collected for 4 days and make butter it would work better, no 6 day old cream. You would have to make it twice a week, but you wouldn't be throwing out smelly butter.

I used my Kitchen Aid mixer to make butter. Of course I never had a gallon a day to skim from, I have a ND, and left her kids on her. I can't wait to get a full size alpine in less than two weeks!!

mrs.H · #4 04/05/12, 08:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alice In TX/MO

The older Czech folks here like it that way. It's basically "cultured."

Freeze the cream each day after you skim to prevent that stink. Make butter by thawing all of it when you've accumulated enough.

I'm just not a cultured lady.

I forgot the part about freezing. Thanks Alice.

Cheryl aka JM · #5 04/05/12, 08:50 AM

I stopped making butter because of that funk. No one would eat it. Someone told me it was because the dairy animals diet, more green more funk. Less green less funk. I don't know if thats true or not, but I stopped trying to make butter.

Alice In TX/MO · #6 04/05/12, 09:13 AM

Green isn't the problem.

It's the bacteria that grow in the cream unless it's frozen.

CaliannG · #7 04/06/12, 12:31 AM

~smiles~ Different strokes for different folks.

I have enough milk to get cream for butter every couple of days. I leave it in the fridge until it smells like it is JUST about to turn sour.....you know the smell on milk that tells you "I had better use this in the next day or two"? That's what I wait for.

Then I throw it in the food processor on low for five minutes with a dash of salt, drain the butter milk, paddle the butter to drain more butter milk, then put it back in the food processor with some cold water and a couple of ice cubes to both "wash" it and harden it. The paddle it a bit more to get all of the water out.

Mine doesn't "culture" after that, though. Perhaps because I wait for it to go kind of acidic before making butter, so the "buck scented bacteria" don't get much of a chance.

LFRJ · #8 04/06/12, 12:47 AM

Be sure to rinse ALL of the milky water out of your butter after churning too. I have experience the thrill followed by the funk. In later batches, I made sure to rinse and rinse and rinse the butter in cold water to expel any of the milky liquid. THat helped a lot.

Lazydaisy67 · #9 04/06/12, 08:35 AM

ok, thought I had washed it until the water ran clean, BUT I did notice that after a day or two, I found liquid in the container. I stirred and drained some more. I will keep trying. I'm just determined that we WILL be eating nothing but goat milk butter. Why bother buying when we've got it for free?!

Hollowdweller · #10 04/06/12, 09:04 AM

I never have a problem if I pasteurize the milk before I skim the cream.

Lazydaisy67 · #11 04/06/12, 09:19 AM

Well if I HAVE to pasteurize to keep it from stinking I guess I could, but I'm all about RAW pretty much just cause it's better for ya.

KrisD · #12 04/06/12, 10:10 AM

As Alice said every day when you skim the milk put the cream in the freezer. Just keep adding to it until you have enough to make butter then thaw it all out and make it. Rinse really well and you shouldn't have a problem. Use very good sanitation when milking because the smallest amount of bacteria can make it turn.

Hollowdweller · #13 04/06/12, 01:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lazydaisy67

Well if I HAVE to pasteurize to keep it from stinking I guess I could, but I'm all about RAW pretty much just cause it's better for ya.

Never had any luck with butter from raw goat milk. The agitation alone will cause it to start going off.

I've taken a jar of goat milk and shook one and handled the other gently and put in the fridge. The shook one will turn goaty earlier the majority of the time.

CaliannG · #14 04/06/12, 02:28 PM

All my butter comes from raw milk and raw cream. BUT.....

Skim milk and cream that goes through my separator turns more quickly than just fresh, raw milk....and I believe that is due to the agitation.

I haven't had a problem with butter turning, though, and since I use my food processor to make it, which is even more agitation at high speeds, I don't think it is the agitation that is the problem.

Might be just because I wash the bejeebers out of it in that same food processor.